Who

Brown is an art dealer with a reputation for picking rising stars.

Backstory

Raised in Croydon, a suburb of London, Brown moved to New York in 1988 to work at a series of galleries (Pat Hearn Gallery, Brooke Alexander Editions, Lisa Spellman's 303 Gallery) before heading out on his own, opening Gavin Brown's Enterprise in a hole-in-the-wall space on Broome Street in 1994. He earned attention early on for championing celebrity portraitist Elizabeth Peyton, whom he first exposed to the world a year before his gallery opened with a show hosted in room 828 of the Chelsea Hotel.

He's continued to make his mark by introducing new talent on the art scene. In addition to Peyton, Brown's current roster includes Franz Ackermann, Martin Creed, Peter Doig, Rob Pruitt, Rirkrit Tiravanija (Peyton's ex-husband), and Tony Just (Peyton's current boyfriend); his gallery also helped birth electro/performance art band Fischerspooner. But he suffered a major defection in 2005 when Chris Ofili, of elephant dung-coated The Holy Virgin Mary fame, dropped him in favor of David Zwirner. Brown's gallery moved to West 15th Street in 1997 and to its current Greenwich Street location in 2004.

On the side

Until 2008, Brown owned Passerby, a bar popular among fashion and art types next to his former gallery in Chelsea. The venue featured a lighted disco floor built by Brown himself and designed by Polish artist Piotr Uklanski, whom Larry Gagosian recently poached from his artist stable.

Personal

Brown's wife is Scottish-born clothing designer Lucy Barnes, who outfitted Rachel Feinstein with a gown for her wedding to John Currin. They live in an apartment above Brown's Greenwich Street gallery with their three daughters, and own a cabin in Lordville, NY without electricity or running water.